§ LORD MUSICERRY rose to move for a Return showing the colour-vision tests adopted by France, Germany, and the United States for their merchant services. The noble Lord said: My Lords, when I last brought the subject of tests for colour-vision before your Lordships I was informed that I had made no case for an inquiry into the reliability of these tests. Since then I have been informed that the Holmgren wool test, which is the test adopted by the Board of Trade, has been discarded by nearly all other nations as absolutely unreliable. This test was recommended by the Committee appointed by the Royal Society as far back as 1891, and in all probability at the time it was the best that could be thought of, but experience has shown that it is not satisfactory.
§
The noble Lord who opposed me on the last occasion said he knew that in my opinion the Board of Trade never could do anything right. I must demur to that statement. I know they can, and occasionally the Board of Trade do what is right, and I would always be the first to give them credit when they introduce any practical and useful reform. But I would ask your Lordships, Do you think that referring the very technical question of colour-vision tests to the late Advisory Committee, a body composed of shipowners, underwriters and others, none of whom could have been regarded as experts in this matter of colour-vision, can be considered a wise or practical move on the part of the Board of Trade? I submit that not only did I on the last occasion make a good case for the inquiry into this matter for which I asked, but the noble Lord's own speech showed the necessity for such an inquiry; and to prove my contention I will refer to a paragraph in the Report of the Committee on Colour-Vision to which both he and I alluded, and on which Report the Board of Trade have been acting during all these years. On page 19 of the Report of this Committee are the following words—
Cases have been brought before the Committee's notice where a candidate who has failed at first has passed at a subsequent examination. If the test for colour-blindness was fair to a candidate and perfectly efficient, such a re-examination would be unnecessary and passing upon re-examination would be impossible.
I claim that I showed your Lordships on
509
the 30th of last month, and that the noble Lord in his speech also showed your Lordships, that, according to these words in the Report of the Colour-Vision Committee, the present tests are neither fair to the candidate nor perfectly efficient, for the noble Lord himself told you that twenty-seven candidates were passed on re-examination.
§ In the course of his reply the noble Lord representing the Board of Trade alluded to Sir William Abney as being recognised as the greatest living authority on this matter of colour-vision tests. Dr. EdridgeGreen, who, I believe, has devoted all his life to the study and investigation of colour-vision, states that he brought three colour-blind persons to Sir William Abney, who tested them with the official wool test and declared that their sight was all right. Now if in the hands of one who is such a great authority on this subject the official test could be so unreliable, what is likely to happen when the same tests are being used by the Board of Trade examiners, who certainly can in no way claim to be experts in the matter of colour-vision? Is it not possible that many candidates are rejected whose colour-vision is perfect, and, on the other hand, some candidates may be passed by them whose colour-vision is defective? Therefore if the Board of Trade are so solicitous on this matter for the safe navigation of our merchant ships, would it not be well if we were to ascertain what the other nations have done in this respect so as to try and find some really reliable test?
§ I should like to offer one suggestion, and I am sure the noble Lord opposite will consider it a most fair and reasonable one, and I hope he will put it before the President. It is that the Board of Trade should issue a notice calling the attention of parents who are thinking of sending their sons to sea to the advisability of having their eyesight, both for form and colour-vision, carefully tested first, so as to avoid the possibility of these young men, after having served for four or five years, finding that owing to defective colour-vision they can no longer pursue their profession or hope to attain certificated rank, and therefore that the best years of their life have been wasted and that they must seek out some other profession to earn their livelihood. I am sure the noble Lord will regard this suggestion as only fair and just.
510§ Moved, That there be laid before the House a Return showing the colour-vision tests adopted by France, Germany, and the United States for their merchant services.—(Lord Muskerry.)
LORD HAMILTON OF DALZELLMy Lords, we went so very fully into this matter of colour-vision tests on June 30 that I am sure your Lordships would not wish me to cover that ground again. With regard to what the noble Lord has said as to the twenty-seven candidates who passed on re-examination, I would like to point out that those were twenty-seven candidates out of 24,000 candidates examined during the four years, and that, I think, is rather a testimonial to the care with which those tests were carried out than otherwise. The noble Lord calls attention to the Holmgren wool test. There, again, the Board. of Trade are of opinion that those tests have proved satisfactory during the many years in which they have been in use—since 1894; and during those years an average of 6,000 persons have been examined every year. But we are quite willing to get the information for which the noble Lord asks, and the only suggestion which I would make to him is that he should amplify his Motion and that we should get returns from all the great maritime countries, and not only from the three which he mentions.
LORD HAMILTON OF DALZELLWe have already written to the Foreign Office and asked for these particulars. We will obtain them as soon as possible and lay them on the Table of the House. With regard to the noble Lord's suggestion, I think it is a very proper one to make and I shall be very glad to bring it before my right hon. friend.
§ LORD MUSKERRY then moved his Motion in the amended form—namely, "That there be laid before the House a Return showing the colour-vision tests adopted by the principal maritime countries for their merchant services."
§ On Question, Motion agreed to, and ordered accordingly.